Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domvile KBE CB CMG (1878–1971) was a distinguished Royal Navy officer who turned into a leading British Pro-German anti-Semite in the years before the Second World War.
Domvile was the son of Admiral Sir Compton Domvile and followed his father into the Royal Navy. Before the First World War he was Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, and during the war he commanded destroyers and cruisers in the Harwich Force. After the war he became Director of Plans, and Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean before becoming, in 1925, commanding officer of the battleship Royal Sovereign.
He became director of the Department of Naval Intelligence from 1927 to 1930, then commanded the Third Cruiser Squadron from 1931 until 1932, and served as President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich from 1932 to 1934.
Domvile had already visited Germany in 1935, being impressed by many aspects of the Nazi government, and was invited to attend the Nuremberg Rally of September 1936 as a guest of the German Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop. He became a council member of the Anglo-German Fellowship, and founded the Anglo-German organisation The Link. He supported St. John Philby, the anti-semitic British Peoples Party candidate in the Hythe by-election of 1939 and visited Salzburg that summer, attracting some criticism.
In June 1940 his mistress, Mrs. Olive Baker, was arrested for distributing leaflets in favour of the Nazi radio broadcasts to Britain. She tried to commit suicide in prison, but was sentenced to five years imprisonment.[1]
Due to his pro-Nazi views, Domvile was interned during World War II under Defence Regulation 18B from 7 July 1940 to 29 July 1943. His experience in internment increased his anti-semitism and led him to develop a conspiracy theory about an organisation he called 'Judmas' ("the Judaeo-Masonic combination, which has wielded such a baneful influence in world history").
Domvile was a prolific diarist. When internment was imminent he hid the latest (56th) volume of his diaries in his garden where it was not discovered by the authorities.
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